The Boys face off with barn animals and Simon Pegg on a highly entertaining episode
Things get bloody and very, very funny on this week's episode
Now that we’re over halfway through this season of The Boys, let’s take stock of where we’re at. Many fans have been complaining a lot about the season, and the scores on review sites have been a lot lower than usual. Much of this can be attributed to the significant review-bombing occurring on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes from media illiterate fans who have just realized that The Boys has been (gasp) making fun of them the whole time. They should never be taken seriously, but I don’t want to over-generalize here; many fans have been complaining about the plot’s slow pace, overuse of shock value, and the numerous subplots centering around characters that some audience members aren’t as interested in.
The show has been dwelling in gratuitous content since the start, so I don’t understand why that’s only a problem for some now. As for the complaints about the pace and characters, I would push back on the critics of those, as I think the show has purposefully been taking a more character-centric, satirical, and introspective approach thus far. I’ve enjoyed that deeper look into our cast, and starting with episode 4, we have already seen the season’s intensity ramp up. If you simply want non-stop action and cardboard characters, then maybe the rest of the superhero genre is for you. As someone who is thoroughly invested in this show, and who has yet to be disappointed by it, I have had faith all along in the writers and their deliberate structuring of the season. Now, the season is really kicking into high gear and proving the haters wrong by already delivering on the setup in spades. After last week’s outstanding episode, “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son” only continues the momentum established and proves that season 4 still has a wild ride in store for us.
After last week’s non-stop intensity, this episode changes up this season’s formula slightly and opts for a softer tone (since this is The Boys, “a softer tone” still means plenty of exploding bodies). It was a nice change of pace to have The Boys all together (barring Hughie) rather than separated into subplots, and the singular mission that they’re on made for a more focused episode than the others this season. Between this group dynamic as well as Neuman and Edgar joining this wild mission, it also means that this episode was the funniest we’ve had in a while. There were so many laugh-out-loud moments in this episode, particularly from Butcher and his one-liners. I listed some of his greatest hits in this episode below.
After seeing the V-d up chickens for the first time — “You didn’t tell us that your pal Sameer was V-ing up a Kentucky Fried fucking massacre!”
While bickering with Starlight — “I’d call you a cunt, but you ain’t got the depth nor the warmth.”
Upon seeing a V-d up bull — “Off we fuck, nice and slow.”
After Annie asks how they’ll survive running from the chickens — “Darwinism, love. Don’t got to be the fastest, just not the slowest.”
When comforting Sameer about his missing leg — “I ain’t gonna sugarcoat it, your football days are over.”
While telling The Boys about the virus — “Now, it’s completely harmless to humans, but to Supes? Fuuuucking diabolical.
After Annie tells him that his plan to steal the virus is “insane and desperate, even for [him]” — “Well, insanely desperate’s where we are, don’t you think, love?”
But Butcher wasn’t the only one doling out the best lines tonight. Joe gets a top-tier insult at the episode’s start after Butcher asks him why they’re meeting in a park —“I was thinking we could meet in your mom’s pussy, but, you know, I wanted someplace more private.” — that was delivered in classic JDM fashion. Frenchie also gets some brilliant lines that call back to his season 1 personality. Once he learns that the virus can be transmitted through blood, saliva or semen, and that they want to use the dead body to transmit it, he concerningly tells the rest of the crew “This man is in no condition to fuck a sheep.” That’s his best line of the hour, but he gets some other great ones when fighting the chickens; his crazed delivery of “V’d up fucking chicken!” and his exasperated delivery of “Oh, mon Dieu, I can’t believe this is fucking happening to me again!” were both golden.
Back at The Seven, we also got some great lines. There’s one great exchange between Firecracker and Sage; Firecracker remarks that “Y’all just think I’m stupid poor white trash.”, to which Sage responds “I don’t think you’re poor.” When The Deep taunts Cameron about how he will, um, entertain his wife tonight, he filthily tells her that he’s especially talented down there because “I don’t need to come up for air, I can just breathe right through her fucking juices.” And when Ashley is confronted with the prospect of teaming up with A-Train again, she perfectly remarks “I took one shit in Homelander’s toilet, I am not joining the fucking Rebel Alliance.”
As I previously said, it was just refreshing to see The Boys together on a very fun mission. Not only did we get plenty of fun rapport among the team, but it really leaned into the wild, gory chaos of this universe. The hunt for the supe-killing virus from Gen V continues to strongly tie The Boys’ universe together without falling into the trap of requiring the audience to watch a spinoff in order to understand the main show (hello, Disney+). To add to that, the concept of V-d up animals flying around for a barn is a hilariously inventive idea that paves the way for some gnarly carnage. It was the needed reprieve from the darkness that this season has been dwelling in while providing a creative, highly entertaining story on its own. One of my favorite moments was when Butcher sees a hamster being injected with Temp V and gently lets it free, to which Kimiko smiles at him proudly; it was a rare sweet moment between the two that proved how much their relationship was softening.
We later see the hamster again with tentacles sprouting from it, which leads Butcher to put it out of its misery. This moment was clear foreshadowing in my mind; if you recall, my theory about Butcher’s blackout incident last episode was that the mix of Temp V and Compound V he took produced a venom-like symbiote within him that takes over in times of danger. After seeing the Temp V-d up hamster, I would bet that’s a clue that Butcher has similar tentacles that could sprout from him. However, this gentler side of Butcher doesn’t last too long. He’s willing to use the last of the supe-killing virus to distract the chickens and allow his team to escape without injury, but, being Butcher, he always has a secret plan brewing.
The final scene was brilliant; I loved the reveal that he had secretly abducted Sameer and will be working with Joe to get more of the virus on his hands. Their two scenes together were still electric, and since I love the two of these actors so much, the prospect of these badasses sharing more time together makes me very excited. There have been some fan theories swirling around about Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character; I don’t want to spell it out since fans can often be accurate about these theories, but I’ll link a few of them here. I think these are certainly plausible, and they could explain some aspects of his character, but I’m still not fully sold on them. No matter what’s going on, I am still asking Kripke and co. for more Jeffrey Dean Morgan in these episodes. But anyway, Urban’s glorious delivery of “You’re gonna make us some more of that virus.” paired with the music swelling and Morgan’s signature smirk made me very hyped.
The cherry on top was Butcher’s absolutely diabolical smile in the last shot. After 5 episodes of Butcher trying to bury some of his darker tendencies, it was a treat to see a glimmer of his old, savage self peeking through once again. After last episode ended with Homelander’s devilish smile, I suspect that the director purposefully wanted to callback to that and show how Butcher is never too far above Homelander on the morality spectrum. I don’t think he’ll fully revert back to being a complete a-hole, as that would undo too much of his development over the last few episodes, but I suspect that we’ll be speaking more of his brutal side as events continue to escalate. I, for one, could not be more excited to see it.
The rest of The Boys aren’t split up into subplots, but they still get plenty to do. I will admit to being a bit annoyed by Annie in this episode; I understand that she’s going through some horrible times, and the scene of her looking at the defaced Starlight House was a gloomy sight. But her constant mistrust and moral superiority over Butcher is getting a bit old, especially since he’s consistently trying to prove himself as a better person and she (along with the rest of The Boys) continue to sink into more and more messed-up depths themselves. With that said, I’m still enjoying this darker look at her character and seeing how she is understandably growing more unstable as she’s faced with almost constant hatred (an interesting detail is seeing how this is affecting her powers, as her anger is seemingly preventing her from properly summoning her powers).
She also gets a strong scene with a guilt-racked Frenchie, where they debate about whether they still believe in God or their own religion. No matter how many awful things he may have done, it’s still somber to see Frenchie falling apart because of his own guilt and thinking that simple confessions will never redeem himself for his unforgivable sins, simply saying that he deserves eternal damnation. Even when the writers are exposing us to Frenchie’s unforgivable past, scenes like this still earn sympathy for the character. His last scene teases him being completely driven to his lowest point, as he surrenders himself to the police out of shame and the feeling that he deserves more punishment. I’ll talk about this more below, but I think this inner turmoil is effectively setting Frenchie up for the end of his arc and his tenure on the show.
A major asset for this episode was putting Neuman and Stan Edgar at the forefront of the plot. Neuman is such a great antagonist for the show: she contrasts well with the bombast of characters like Homelander and Stormfront, as she’s a quieter, more methodical villain who always feels one step ahead of our characters. Her steely, progressive nature makes her scary as a secret weapon, and her power adds another level of unpredictability whenever she’s on screen (man, does this show do tension well; last week; I talked about how unpredictable every scene with Homelander is, but every scene with Neuman has me just as uneasy as I wait for someone’s head to randomly explode). She’s just as effective here, particularly when she’s having casual conversations with Annie. Just as they did with her relationship with Hughie, they effectively contrast her threat with a more human demeanor; her dialogue about the internal war between “Nadia” and “Neuman” continues to humanize her. Claudia Doumit continues to deliver sharp lines while maintaining an intimidating nature through her intelligence and cold brutality. We’ll get into this below, but I suspect Neuman will be dead by the end of the season; therefore, it’s nice that we got some downtime with her and The Boys before she (assumingly) bites the dust.
The most pleasant surprise of the hour was the return of Stan Edgar. I’ve been wondering when he would return after being ousted from Vought last season, and he returns in full force here. Though I have been a bit tired of Giancarlo Esposito playing slight variations of Gus in almost every role he takes, Stan Edgar is an exception; Esposito brings so much charisma to the role, and he fits so well into this universe when matching wits with characters like Butcher and Homelander (who he unfortunately doesn’t get to reunite with in this episode). Seeing him team up with The Boys is a good fit for his character; his deadpan, exhausted delivery is nicely paired with this group, as is his devotion to his own elegance and gravitas (Butcher even highlights his sleek style at one point). Sure, he doesn’t get any scenes as iconic as his original dialogue with Butcher or the best scenes of him matching wits with Homelander. Still, his powerful presence fits every scene he’s in, and a well-spoken, calculating character foils these rougher situations well. Now that Neuman has freed him, I’m hotly anticipating what else he will do this season, and I really hope he can share one more scene of him verbally demolishing Homelander before the season’s end.
I will say that some aspects of this sequence didn’t quite fit together logically. The most glaring plot hole to me was Neuman not simply blowing up the sheep with her mind while they were trapped in the barn. Lord knows she’s done it before, and she even blew up a chicken that was attacking Stan earlier in the episode. The most convincing justification I’ve read from fans is that the sheep were moving around too fast for her to focus on killing them; most of her victims prior to them were still or in sight of Neuman for her to kill them with ease, and she has been seen struggling with those that are moving around more (such as her friend from Red River). Also, it could be inferred that she has more difficulty blowing up those with Compound V than regular humans. It’s been implied that she can’t blow up Homelander’s head, and the only supe she’s blown up with ease has been standing still and in front of her (Shockwave in the courthouse). I just wish they had overtly mentioned this possibility and why it would be difficult for her to forgo any ambiguity.
I didn’t notice this while I was watching, but many fans online raised criticism about why the barn walls were able to hold back the flying sheep. Upon reflection, it’s a bit odd; these sheep with super strength can burst through human bodies like nothing, but they’re held back by a rickety wooden barn?Finally, even though it made for a great ending reveal, I’m very confused by how Butcher was able to kidnap Sameer, cut off his leg, and hide him away without anyone noticing. Since he drives home with the rest of The Boys at the end, I have no idea how he could do all this so swiftly, silently, and strategically enough for the police to find no trace of the living Sameer.
The episode’s best subplot goes to Hughie, who is again having to deal with some screwed-up family drama. Once his dad awakens, we are treated to a surprisingly sweet family reunion; his dad is one of the few people in this show that I can describe as wholesome, and it’s nice to see Hughie spending time with both of his parents getting along. As pleasant as it is, of course it can’t last long; nothing good does in The Boys, and Hughie’s dad starts killing people because of the Compound V he was given (I ended up getting my wish for a Simon Pegg supe, but at what cost?). We’ve seen graphic killings and supes unleashing havoc before, but what makes these sequences special is how they characterize Hughie’s dad. Since he is genuinely confused and horrified by his actions, they work his newfound superpowers into a metaphor for those suffering dementia. Simon Pegg, in the best non-comedic performance I’ve ever seen from him, perfectly sells the confusion that people suffering from dementia have. It’s sad to see him disgusted by the violent act that he unwillingly performed, and it’s even sadder to see him struggle to recognize his own son.
There’s so much emotion in these little moments, particularly when Hughie attempts to bring him back into the present day and remind him that they are father and son. We’ve only known Hughie’s dad as a loving figure to him, so the slow loss of his mind and inability to remember special moments with his son is more painful than any amount of dead bodies that can be thrown at us. Jack Quaid sincerely sells his desperation to hold onto his father’s mind, and his eventual realization that his father must die is just as potent. Hughie’s been such an innocent character throughout this show that it feels fitting for the writers to finally let him make some hard decisions. After being forced to brutally murder someone in episode 4, it’s fulfilling to see him finally learn the lesson he’s needed this season. By putting his dad down, he’s finally learned to let go and make the hard decisions; I imagine that this willingness to make these brutal sacrifices will only become more relevant as there will be more and more losses across the next three episodes. R.I.P Hugh Campbell; I hope you’re dining on pizza rolls up in heaven.
The V52 expo allowed the writers to ease up on the political commentary and return to some brutal skewering of the superhero genre. The unveiling of phases 7-19 is obviously a shot at the MCU, but there were even more subtle shots, such as A-Train introducing their new show by saying that “it just finished the reshoots of the reshoots, which makes it the most expensive series ever, so you know it’s going to be good.” As the episode’s backdrop, it was wildly entertaining to see them replicate Comic Con’s model with new supes coming out to introduce the next project. The Firecracker trailer was a great bit that perfectly emulated the Christian biopics that “Vought Faith” was trying to skewer. The highlight was definitely Tek Knight’s sharp riff on The Batman, between its apt title of The Tek Knight, its “soundtrack of Nirvana hits”, and “a 12-minute sequence that’s entirely pitch-black”. We even get two guest appearances from Gen V alums Cate and Sam; while it’s fun to see them again, and their movie premise is amusing, it seems weird to bring them into this show and use them so sparingly. Their scenes are so inconsequential that they were either brought in to simply add more crossover between the shows, or there was more footage that just ended up on the cutting room floor.
After dominating so much of the previous episode, Homelander takes a bit of a backseat in this episode. The opening scene sees him twitchy as he copes with his actions at the lab; after those events, I was wondering how his journey of self-discovery would impact his relationship with Ryan. Surprisingly, it’s okay for a while. They get some genuinely good-hearted scenes together as Homelander tells Ryan that he will no longer be forced to do anything he doesn’t want to, and he even embraces Ryan’s ideals of wanting to simply help people with his powers. Homelander makes multiple hilarious comparisons to him being freed from the lab and slaves being emancipated, but everything else seems to be okay. Unfortunately, this honeymoon period doesn’t last long. He quickly starts manipulating Ryan’s aspirations for good into more sinister motivations, such as reveling in the scummy director being slapped around or feeling satisfaction from him begging on his knees. This feels like a far more natural progression of his character’s turn toward the dark side. When he smiled after seeing Homelander laser the protester last season, it felt like that came out of left field; seeing Homelander twist his pure motivations into an enjoyment of punishment and revenge is a more natural corruption of his morals.
Homelander also gets a chilling speech towards the episode’s end, where he tells all of our major heroes that they will no longer be “beloved celebrities”, and they must instead be “wrathful gods” to save their corrupt country. It’s a shift in thinking that’s been a long time coming, but it feels more disturbing to hear him declare those ideals outright. His first test of wrath involves beating not-Tucker Carlson…I mean, Cameron Coleman, to death. He should have known that getting on Ashley’s bad side will never lead to anything good, and her brewing alliance with A-Train leads her to cover her tracks by framing Coleman as the one who leaked the video. It’s interesting to see these new dynamics continue to be shifted among the cast at Vought, and the heroes collectively beating Cameron to death is effective as the first show of their newfound wrath. R.I.P Cameron Coleman. At least you died doing something you loved: getting stomped on by powerful women.
One complaint about last season that many echoed, particularly about last season, was that the show remained a bit hesitant to off any major players. It hasn’t been a major issue for me (though I do think Maeve should have died in the finale), but one hope for this season was that the death toll would increase. In particular, I hoped that one member of The Boys and one long-standing member of The Seven would die in this season to truly up the stakes. Now that we’re over halfway through the season, I think my wish will come true. A-Train is almost guaranteed to go by the end of this season. They’ve been building up his character way too much for him to make it out of this batch of episodes alive, and I expect him to go out with one last heroic sacrifice that helps The Boys. Speaking of our favorite vigilantes, I think Frenchie’s time is also almost up. Now, I did think the same thing last season; his subplot with Kimiko had death flags all over, and I suspected he would be the one to bite the dust. They both made it out alive, but after being given so much screen time this season, I suspect he’ll die doing something that can partially redeem himself for all the guilt he’s been feeling (my running theory is that he’ll die saving Colin to partially make up for what he did to his family).
On the villain front, I suspected that Neuman will die in this season from the start; she’ll be our victory at the season’s end, and a fully off-the-leash Homelander will be the sole focus for season 5. The Boys also likes to kill newly introduced characters, and I suspect Firecracker will meet Starlight’s wrath for a very entertaining bout of revenge. Sage seems to have more potential beyond this season, and I think the rest of the side characters have been used sparingly enough (Black Noir 2, Joe Kessler) to not be set up for big deaths or won’t die to spare our characters any more unnecessary suffering (Hughie’s mom, Colin). Some other fans have speculated that Ashley or The Deep will die; The Deep has made it this long that I strangely think that he will end up surviving the show. As for Ashley, I’ve also been suspecting that she could be at the end of her run, but I’m more confident about my other choices, and I doubt the writers will kill off that many major players in the next three episodes. Many reviewers who have seen the whole season have singled out the next episode as one of the season’s best, so we lads should be in for a doozy next week. Until then, keep calm and, in the words of Butcher, “don’t be a cunt”.
Grade: A-
Stray Observations
Can someone explain Vought’s current political position to me? They began as a parody of how companies shallowly pander to liberal politics, and they do so here with “Black At It” initiatives and “Go Woke, Get Yoked” slogans. However, Homelander and Firecracker continue to spew alt-right rhetoric that goes against these politics. Are they Disney faux-progressive or Fox News anti-woke?
Is it weird that I really want to watch Training A-Train? That hilarious trailer they played just reminded me how much I unironically want to see it. In fact, I’ll happily sacrifice anything from the next phase of the MCU for any of the in-universe movies promised in this episode.
Hughie’s so messed up this season that we haven’t gotten one Billy Joel needle drop yet.
“Old MacDonald Had a Farm” playing over the credits was a very funny note to close the episode on.
The stress of the team’s constant bickering and the news of his daughter getting suspended for fighting about supes is giving MM stress hives. Poor guy can’t hold his home or work life together.
Those security agents working for Neuman had no chance of making it out of that barn alive. No main character is dying to murderous chicken, so those red shirts were very much needed.
The title is in reference to Lewis Carroll’s poem Jabberwocky, which follows a boy searching for and killing the dangerous creature called the Jabberwock. Apply that creature to murderous farm animals, and I guess it fits together well.